The corridor is used by suburban, inter-city and high speed services, and is being upgraded by a joint venture of Gülermak and Kolin under a TCDD project to increase capacity and improve suburban services.  

The scope of the contract announced by Thales on July 10 includes the provision of a centralised traffic control system, electronic interlockings, ETCS Level 1 and 2 automatic train protection, bidirectional lineside signalling, level crossing equipment and the interfaces between the high speed and conventional routes.

Thales has previously installed signalling and telecoms on more than 400 km of the Ankara – Istanbul route. It established a Turkish subsidiary in 2009, and now employs more than 80 local signalling staff.